Tom Sykes is praying that the reliability problems which cost him dearly at Portimao are a thing of the past as he prepares to take on Kawasaki teammate Jonathan Rea at Misano. The 2013 champion was fighting for victory when ZX-10R cut out in race one before a fall in rear tyre pressure saw him fall away in race two.
Starting afresh in Rimini, Sykes begins the weekend with his eyes on victory at a venue he counts among his favourites.
“This year we have had a bit of bad luck, which is very unlike us, but we have got the bike working well for us and in a way that was giving us good results. I am looking forward to going to Misano because it is a great part of the world. There is a great atmosphere just being there in general and we will be back to competing in front of the Italian fans. It is nice to be racing on the coast of Italy and this time of year the temperature is up, the sun is generally shining and all-in-all it is a great venue.”
Rea returned to winning ways with a double success at Portimao and with special memories from his previous visits to Misano, the championship leader is in high spirits.
“I had my first ever WSB race win at Misano and I always enjoy going to Italy. The Ninja ZX-10R has been really competitive at Misano and I am looking forward to it. We will see on Friday how the bike is because it is another new track for me on the Kawasaki but we will see how things are in the first session and take it from there. I hope that there will be a lot of people there on the weekend; there always seems to be. Imola was pretty full and the Italian crowds always have a warm place in my heart. Temperatures should be hot again, like in Portimao, so I expect to be strong. It is the last European race for a while, before we go on two fly-aways, so it would be good to make it count.”
